Pure Profit

In light of the latest mine disaster, I especially miss Jordan Barab's writing at Confined Space. I've been hearing various reports about the collapse on various corporate media outlets. I hear "retreat mining" mentioned in every one. That's because that's what the now-trapped, maybe-dead miners were doing when the predictable happened and the roof fell in.

Retreat pillar mining is one of the biggest causes of mine
roof-collapse deaths, according to studies done by the National
Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, which concluded that "a
coal miner on a pillar recovery section was more than three times as
likely to be fatally injured" in a roof collapse than colleagues in
other parts of a mine.

Would it have mattered if the mine were union, with union protections and union wages? This is what the owner of the mine has to say about anyone raising those questions - after he was finished trying to convince anyone who would listen that is was an earthquake that trapped his workers: (via)

During an interview with Fox News' Neil Cavuto in May, Robert Murray
responded to a comment from Clinton, who asked a crowd whether they
were ready for a president who is "pro-labor and will appoint people
who actually care about workers' rights and workers' safety."

"Bob, do you view this rhetoric as pro-labor, anti-business, what?" Cavuto asked Murray.

"Absolutely
not," Murray responded. "I view it as anti-American. These people
should -- are misleading the American worker then they talk about jobs.
These are the people advocating draconian global warming conditions
that are going to drive American jobs to foreign countries and raise
electric rates for everybody on fixed incomes."

It is "the most dangerous type of mining there is," said Tony
Oppegard, a former top federal and Kentucky mine-safety official who is
now a private attorney in Lexington, Ky., representing miners.

According to the American Society of Safety Engineers, retreat
mining requires precise planning and sequencing to ensure roof
stability while the pillars supporting the roof are removed.

The reason the practice is used is that it pays off: The last bit of
coal taken from pillars is pure profit, Oppegard said. Plus, if someone
violates rules during pillar removal and there is a collapse, the
evidence of rule violations is gone, he said.

Why, that's convenient.

The
Mine Safety and Health Administration has cited Murray's mine in
central Utah with more than 300 violations since January 2004,
including 118 "significant and substantial" violations that are
considered serious enough to cause injury or death.

And this year?

The mine has been inspected
six times this year. The latest inspection, which took place July 5, is
still open. During that episode, inspectors cited the mine for 11
violations for various safety infractions. A subsequent administration
report showed 12 citations were later issued, of which six were
considered serious enough to cause injury or death.

One violation was for
failing to adequately provide at least two escape routes inside the
sprawling mine. No details were provided, but government inspectors did
not think the violation was serious enough to recommend a fine.

Three of the serious violations were for failing to dispose or store flammable materials. Again, no fine was recommended.

Pure profit.

Update: Another theme popping up in the coverage of the
story is that the mining industry is heavily regulated so hundreds of
violations is par for the course. Mick, one of Jordan's noble heirs, writes about what kind of special lunacy it is to consider a mine with hundreds of safety violations to be considered relatively safe. "Relatively" will get workers killed every time.

Look, mining is dangerous, no doubt about it. That's exactly why the industry should be heavily regulated with onerous and strictly enforced fines and penalties. And the wages paid to the workers risking their lives so that our televisions and air conditioners work should be richly compensated. Unions would - or at least should - go a long way to getting some of that accomplished.

Comments

The AP reported that since '04, OSHA has issued - and this is a direct quote - "hundreds of safety violation citations against the mine."

Hundreds. In 3 years. And over $152K in fines. Murray corrected NONE of the problems, knowing full well he could get away with ignoring the Bush OSHA. In fact, many of the citations were for the very same problems - violations that had been unaddressed from visit to visit.

Bang for the Buck: Boosting the American Economy

Compassionate Conservatism in Action

Molly

"We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."

Zinn

"[O]ur time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice."

Bono

"True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom. Love thy neighbor is not a piece of advice, it's a command. ...

God, my friends, is with the poor and God is with us, if we are with them. This is not a burden, this is an adventure."

The Reverend Al Sharpton

Ray wasn't singing about what he knew, 'cause Ray had been blind since he was a child. He hadn't seen many purple mountains. He hadn't seen many fruited plains. He was singing about what he believed to be.

Mr. President, we love America, not because of all of us have seen the beauty all the time.

But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.

Marx

''With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 percent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 percent will produce eagerness, 50 percent positive audacity; 100 percent will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300 percent, and there is not a crime which it will not scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged.''